Phyllis Hults

Ancestors

Biography

52 years of life - where to begin!

Phyllis's parents met and married while Dan was on leave from the Marine Corps following Boot Camp in February 1965. Dan had moved with his parents and younger sister Sally from Nebraska to Walla Walla in Walla Walla County, Washington, in 1962 after they went to Seattle for the World's Fair the summer before Dan's senior year of high school. Jean was living with her older sister Myrna in Walla Walla where she was attending beauty school and helping take care of her sister's children while Myrna worked and attended nursing school. At the time of their marriage in Lewiston, Idaho, where there is no waiting period like the 3 days from application to ceremony required in Washington State, Dan was 19 and Jean was 21.

Phyllis was born to Dan and Jean Hults at St Mary's Hospital in Walla Walla, Walla Walla County, Washington State, on September 27, 1968. Jean went into labor late on the 25th and finally delivered about 8:45am on the 27th. Phyllis was approximately a month overdue and was very attentive in the hospital nursery. Thankfully she was a very good baby - life seemed to be off to a comfortable start.

Just after her third birthday, Phyllis developed some unusual swelling in her right knee, accompanied by a fever and really wasn't feeling well. By December of 1971, she had the same swelling and pain in her left knee and her right ankle. The doctor diagnosed Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and Phyllis started taking baby aspirin for the pain and swelling. The doctor recommended that she not exercise, but fortunately her parents didn't follow that advice. Phyllis rode her tricycle in the house and outside so she could get around on her own and maintain some muscle tone. In approximately the Spring of 1972 her mom's parents, Steven and Katie Alexenko, moved to College Place, adjacent to Walla Walla in Walla Walla County, Washington, from their small farm in Western Montana. While Phyllis's family moved frequently around eastern Washington, they regularly traveled to Walla Walla to visit family. All 4 grandparents and 2 great grandmothers, the mothers of both grandmothers, lived in Walla Walla and College Place, along with aunts, uncles, and cousins on both sides of the family.

The winter that she was 9yo she was seen for the first time in the Rheumatology Department at Children's Hospital in Seattle (formerly Children's Orthopedic Hospital and Medical Center). From that time on her mom, usually, took her to the Rheumatology Clinic every 2 weeks to see the physician and physical therapist. Phyllis was also regularly exercising at home. At that time there were no disease modifying drugs for Rheumatology and other immune system disorders; there were only medications to treat the inflammation and pain. She participated in various drug studies and other types of research so that scientists and researchers could learn more about both the effects of different drug therapies on children and better understand the immune system of sufferers of JRA//RA (which for Phyllis now has a new diagnosis, Psoriatic Arthritis, due to a better understanding of Psoriasis).

She participated in PE in elementary and middle school and played volleyball and basketball at the Boys and Girls Club in 7th and 8th grades. Toward the end of 8th grade, on May 12, 1982, Phyllis broke her left femur (the large bone in the upper leg) while riding her bicycle on the way to deliver newspapers on her paper route. That was a major set back. She was in the hospital in Everett, Washington, in traction, for 5 weeks, beyond the end of the school year. The summer was spent in a cast and using a wheel chair or crutches to get around. The cast was removed less than 2 weeks before she started high school, which meant that Phyllis started high school on crutches. A high school built in the very early 20th century, Everett High School's main building was 3 stories and had been expanded by erecting additional buildings over 3 city blocks in downtown Everett. Rainy fall weather, lots of stairs and street crossings, and linoleum floors throughout the various buildings - and not one slip-and-fall. Lots of physical therapy later, Phyllis resumed her paper route in December, when she graduated to a cane and could ride her bicycle again.

After lots of business classes, 4 years of Spanish and several semesters of TA'ing for the Spanish teacher, even earning a scholarship from the Language Department, she graduated high school in 1986. She attended Gonzaga University (GO ZAGS!) in Spokane, Washington, where she lived with her great aunt Lois Kabanuk for her freshman year in college. She enjoyed the University but couldn't afford to attend her sophomore year, so came home and attended Edmonds Community College where she earned an Associate of Arts Degree in Accounting in 1988.

The family had had 2 exchange students from Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico, who were brothers, by this time. Phyllis was interested in the possibility of attending the University of Mexico, so she contacted International Student Exchange (ISE) to ask them if they knew what tuition might be. The reply gave the tuition cost in Pesos, millions of pesos for the year 89-90. If only she'd known that the cost was equivalent to about $400USD for the year! The letter also contained information about a Pre-K through 12 private dual language school in the home city of the family's former exchange students which was looking for Americans who were interested in teaching. The school was to pay $500USD per month and provide room and board. Phyllis had always been interested in teaching, and was leaning toward education as her route for her Bachelor's Degree, so she submitted a letter of interest and a resume to the school. They replied, offering her the job, to start in August.

In May, Phyllis had surgery to have her left knee replaced as it had deteriorated to the point that there was no cartilage left in the joint, which is what happens with RA and other immune disorders - the white blood cells attack the healthy tissue of the affected joint, muscle, or body system. She was amazed to have no pain in this major joint that had always been painful, no matter what she did or didn't do.

She returned from Mexico in June, 1990, and was able to visit her paternal grandfather in Walla Walla, Washington, before he died from the effects of emphysema in early August, 1990. The week after Grandpa Hults passed and his life was celebrated Phyllis had surgery to replace her right knee. Things were going relatively smoothly; Phyllis was attending EdCC again, studying computers and taking classes to help her determine where she wanted to go and what she wanted to study to complete her Bachelor's Degree. She decided to apply to Washington State University for Fall 1991. Then January 21, 1991, she slipped on her best friend's front steps and broke her left femur, again, but much worse than the 1st time around. 2 surgeries later and home rehab and she was finally released to bare weight on her wounded left leg just after Memorial Day, and walking without crutches or other assistance by early June of 1991. She graduated from WSU with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences, specifically Economics, History and Political Science in December of 1992.

She worked for the State of Washington, at both the Community Service Division (cash assistance, medical, and food benefits) and the Support Enforcement Office (collecting child support from parents absent from their child/children to be paid to the parent responsible for the child or children), where she was also a Certified Translator and Interpreter for Spanish speaking clients and customers. Shortly after Phyllis started working on a Master's Degree in Education at Western Washington University in 2006, she resigned from the State of Washington so she could work in a more flexible job while she was a student. She had been working at Sears for just over 3 years when she graduated in June of 2009. Unfortunately, by that time her Psoriatic Arthritis (PA) and a previously undiagnosed back problem had become so severe that she was not able to ponder full time employment, or anything that required standing, walking, or sitting for any length of time. She is now disabled and living with her parents, where her 98yo paternal grandma Bette Hults also lives, in Everett, Washington.

Her paternal grandmother was researching her own genealogy from before Phyllis's birth in an effort to locate her own father. Phyllis was able to help her Grandma Bette Hults identify her father after Bette submitted her DNA in 2016. They found that he had died in central California in early 1968. They were also able to identify a half-sister and niece for Bette; the half-sister died shortly before they'd identified her in Puyallup, Washington, and the niece is still living, near to them, but has not responded to any overtures on Bette's part. Bette and her son Dan traveled to central and southern California in 2016 to meet several of the newly discovered relatives. Phyllis and Bette met other relatives in Colorado in 2017.

Phyllis and Bette collaborate on continued genealogical reasearch, truly amazed at how much information is now available without needing to leave their home. Bette and her husband Tom traveled all over the US looking for information, records, and other types of sources until he died in 1990. Phyllis accompanied her grandmother an a trip to Georgia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Wisconsin the Spring of 1991 while her leg was healing and she was unable to work. Phyllis loves the way that family history helps her connect to world history. Her paternal line goes back to several lines in the Peerage, connecting to many of the early rulers and leaders of the Western world. Her maternal line goes to the Ukraine and Russia, making it more difficult to research as many records' collections in that part of the world have been destroyed or are particularly difficult to find without being able to travel or read the language.

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by Phyllis Hults at registration.